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Register a new userSpinning operators and defects in conformal field theory
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We study the kinematics of correlation functions of local and extended operators in a conformal field theory. We present a new method for constructing the tensor structures associated to primary operators in an arbitrary bosonic representation of the Lorentz group. The recipe yields the explicit structures in embedding space, and can be applied to any correlator of local operators, with or without a defect. We then focus on the two-point function of traceless symmetric primaries in the presence of a conformal defect, and explain how to compute the conformal blocks. In particular, we illustrate various techniques to generate the bulk channel blocks either from a radial expansion or by acting with differential operators on simpler seed blocks. For the defect channel, we detail a method to compute the blocks in closed form, in terms of projectors into mixed symmetry representations of the orthogonal group.
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We discuss consequences of the breaking of conformal symmetry by a flat or spherical extended operator. We adapt the embedding formalism to the study of correlation functions of symmetric traceless tensors in the presence of the defect. Two-point functions of a bulk and a defect primary are fixed by conformal invariance up to a set of OPE coefficients, and we identify the allowed tensor structures. A correlator of two bulk primaries depends on two cross-ratios, and we study its conformal block decomposition in the case of external scalars. The Casimir equation in the defect channel reduces to a hypergeometric equation, while the bulk channel blocks are recursively determined in the light-cone limit. In the special case of a defect of codimension two, we map the Casimir equation in the bulk channel to the one of a four-point function without defect. Finally, we analyze the contact terms of the stress-tensor with the extended operator, and we deduce constraints on the CFT data. In two dimensions, we relate the displacement operator, which appears among the contact terms, to the reflection coefficient of a conformal interface, and we find unitarity bounds for the latter.
We continue the study of the bosonic $O(N)^3$ model with quartic interactions and long-range propagator. The symmetry group allows for three distinct invariant $phi^4$ composite operators, known as tetrahedron, pillow and double-trace. As shown in arXiv:1903.03578 and arXiv:1909.07767, the tetrahedron operator is exactly marginal in the large-$N$ limit and for a purely imaginary tetrahedron coupling a line of real infrared fixed points (parametrized by the absolute value of the tetrahedron coupling) is found for the other two couplings. These fixed points have real critical exponents and a real spectrum of bilinear operators, satisfying unitarity constraints. This raises the question whether at large-$N$ the model is unitary, despite the tetrahedron coupling being imaginary. In this paper, we first rederive the above results by a different regularization and renormalization scheme. We then discuss the operator mixing for composite operators and we give a perturbative proof of conformal invariance of the model at the infrared fixed points by adapting a similar proof from the long-range Ising model. At last, we identify the scaling operators at the fixed point and compute the two- and three-point functions of $phi^4$ and $phi^2$ composite operators. The correlations have the expected conformal behavior and the OPE coefficients are all real, reinforcing the claim that the large-$N$ CFT is unitary.
For conformal field theories in arbitrary dimensions, we introduce a method to derive the conformal blocks corresponding to the exchange of a traceless symmetric tensor appearing in four point functions of operators with spin. Using the embedding space formalism, we show that one can express all such conformal blocks in terms of simple differential operators acting on the basic scalar conformal blocks. This method gives all conformal blocks for conformal field theories in three dimensions. We demonstrate how this formalism can be applied in a few simple examples.
Various observables in compact CFTs are required to obey positivity, discreteness, and integrality. Positivity forms the crux of the conformal bootstrap, but understanding of the abstract implications of discreteness and integrality for the space of CFTs is lacking. We systematically study these constraints in two-dimensional, non-holomorphic CFTs, making use of two main mathematical results. First, we prove a theorem constraining the behavior near the cusp of integral, vector-valued modular functions. Second, we explicitly construct non-factorizable, non-holomorphic cuspidal functions satisfying discreteness and integrality, and prove the non-existence of such functions once positivity is added. Application of these results yields several bootstrap-type bounds on OPE data of both rational and irrational CFTs, including some powerful bounds for theories with conformal manifolds, as well as insights into questions of spectral determinacy. We prove that in rational CFT, the spectrum of operator twists $tgeq {c over 12}$ is uniquely determined by its complement. Likewise, we argue that in generic CFTs, the spectrum of operator dimensions $Delta > {c-1over 12}$ is uniquely determined by its complement, absent fine-tuning in a sense we articulate. Finally, we discuss implications for black hole physics and the (non-)uniqueness of a possible ensemble interpretation of AdS$_3$ gravity.
Krylov complexity, or K-complexity for short, has recently emerged as a new probe of chaos in quantum systems. It is a measure of operator growth in Krylov space, which conjecturally bounds the operator growth measured by the out of time ordered correlator (OTOC). We study Krylov complexity in conformal field theories by considering arbitrary 2d CFTs, free field, and holographic models. We find that the bound on OTOC provided by Krylov complexity reduces to bound on chaos of Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford. In all considered examples including free and rational CFTs Krylov complexity grows exponentially, in stark violation of the expectation that exponential growth signifies chaos.
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